Linus's Law

Linus's Law can refer to two different notions, both named after Linus Torvalds.

Linus's Law according to Eric S. Raymond

Linus's Law according to Eric S. Raymond states that "given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow". More formally: "Given a large enough beta-tester and co-developer base, almost every problem will be characterized quickly and the fix will be obvious to someone." The rule was formulated and named by Eric S. Raymond in his essay "The Cathedral and the Bazaar".

Linus's Law according to Linus Torvalds

Linus Torvalds himself also describes a notion as Linus's Law in the prologue to the book "Just for fun": "Linus's Law says that all of our motivations fall into three basic categories. More important, progress is about going through those very same things as 'phases' in a process of evolution, a matter of passing from one category to the next. The categories, in order, are 'survival', 'social life', and 'entertainment'." [citebook|title=The Hacker Ethic|last=Himanen|first=Pekka|authorlink=Pekka Himanen|coauthors=Linus Torvalds, Manuel Castells|date=2001-01-30|publisher=Random House|id=ISBN 0-375-50566-0] This idea is similar to that of Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

Other usages

Linus Torvalds wrote in a GNOME-related mailing list discussion, in a tongue-in-cheek fashion, that "Linus's Law (nr 76 of 271)" was "Don't claim to have a config option, if you don't actually have the UI to change it." [ cite web | url = https://lists.linux-foundation.org/pipermail/desktop_architects/2007-February/002338.html | title = Printing dialog and GNOME ]

See also

*Peer review
*Adages named after people
*Collaborative software development model

References